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mansplains

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 8, 2021
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I went back to using Live recently because Logic wouldn't work as expected. At the time, it would open, and I could view projects. There were other weird problems however. I was on the latest stable macOS version, using my M1 Pro MBP.

Circle back to this week, when I figured I'd check the software again. I realized my recent switch to Live was in February 2023. It's been nearly two years and now Logic doesn't work at all!

I uninstalled it, deleted the related (.plist etc) files, reinstalled, restarted... the usual. Nothing.

Back when the timeline wasn't working, internet searches were useless. Now, I've been able to find other users (ASC, Reddit) with the issue I have now. I went through all of their steps to no avail, aside from reinstalling my OS. Apple Support is useless. I'm waiting for a time machine backup to finish, then I will reinstall my OS.

Thankfully this isn't my income, so Live has been fine in the meantime, but it's still frustrating. If you have faced this problem, were you able to solve it? How?


1731399808841.png


Most menu bar items are disabled. The settings were available, but didn't do anything. Hitting ⌘+O sent a notification "command not available". Activity Monitor did list Logic at 100% CPU. Attempts to open a .logicx file were futile.
 
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You should probably state which actual version of macOS you are currently running. Also which version of Logic Pro you are trying to run.

A couple of things come to mind but there's no point responding until that info is known here.
 
Latest everything. Sequoia 15.1. I’m going to be reinstalling the OS later today, and then Logic will be 11.1, released today.
 
The first thing Logic tries to do when it opens is index all your plugins. Live uses VST plugins as far as I'm aware. Logic uses Audio Units. One of the Audio Unit plugins you have installed could be crashing Logic. I'm guessing that of course; obviously the behaviour you're experiencing in not normal, so one way or another it's related to your particular computer and what you've already installed on it.

If you do go down the 'complete rebuild' route, try just installing the OS, then Logic, to see if it works. No point restoring the entire machine from a TM backup and hoping that will fix it: all that will do is restore your machine to the exact same non-working state it's already in, with for example the exact same corrupt AU plugin that's causing it to crash now.
 
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The first thing Logic tries to do when it opens is index all your plugins. Live uses VST plugins as far as I'm aware. Logic uses Audio Units. One of the Audio Unit plugins you have installed could be crashing Logic. I'm guessing that of course; obviously the behaviour you're experiencing in not normal, so one way or another it's related to your particular computer and what you've already installed on it.
I removed all plug-ins to see if one was causing problems, to no avail. Live does use VSTs.
If you do go down the 'complete rebuild' route, try just installing the OS, then Logic, to see if it works. No point restoring the entire machine from a TM backup and hoping that will fix it: all that will do is restore your machine to the exact same non-working state it's already in, with for example the exact same corrupt AU plugin that's causing it to crash now.
I uninstalled Logic, reinstalled macOS, reinstalled Logic, twice. Still no dice :( I had TM backup only in case of issues, I understand it would simply reintroduce whatever problems exist.
Just trash all logic preferences and let it rebuild
I did this multiple times.

I guess Logic will have to wait until I go through the trouble of setting up a computer as new 🤷‍♂️
 
I removed all plug-ins to see if one was causing problems, to no avail. Live does use VSTs.

I uninstalled Logic, reinstalled macOS, reinstalled Logic, twice. Still no dice :( I had TM backup only in case of issues, I understand it would simply reintroduce whatever problems exist.

I did this multiple times.

I guess Logic will have to wait until I go through the trouble of setting up a computer as new 🤷‍♂️
yes maybe os install is corrupted
 
It is always a pity to have issues like that when dealing with audio. Unfortunately Logic has been always buggy for older than 4 year old tech. Back in the days I couldn't have a stable version for my old iMac 2012. With that in mind I decided not to update my M1 Air to any new OS or Logic version, even despite some nice new features. Apple always breaks things and it takes them eternity to fix.

You can try to downgrade your iMac OS and install older Logic version. Best way to do that without touching your existing system is to buy external USB SSD drive and install the old system there, as well as Logic. So when you need Ableton you just run your usual system and when you have mood to make something with Logic you run the older version off SSD by holding ALT during Mac startup
 
I have more experience with Live. I only bought Logic as part of the edu bundle for learning it. Perhaps an external boot is the way to go, it's not a bad idea. I used to do this for beta testing audio software including DAWs before. Now I only beta test plugins.
 
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I feel I've failed you having not come up with any more ideas. I can't see any reason why a freshly-installed Logic Pro on a freshly-installed OS shouldn't at least just open, especially if you haven't yet installed anything else, such as external plugins and Live. It's not something I've experienced before, and I've been using Logic Pro for 11 years on five different Macs and on every OS version since Snow Leopard. The only things I ever found that stopped it loading were, as I said before, corrupt / incompatible third-party plugins in the Components folder (Components = AU plugins). I don't know what else to advise.
 
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I can live without it thankfully. I appreciate the suggestions, and hopefully it'll work someday.
 
When you said:
I uninstalled Logic, reinstalled macOS, reinstalled Logic, twice.
It sound like you didn't start from scratch. That is, you didn't start from a blank volume. I say this because uninstalling Logic would be pointless if you were starting from scratch.

Try this: create a new volume on your internal drive. Install macOS. Install Logic Pro. Test.
 
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